Bill seeks to crack down on opioids

Fentanyl linked to overdose deaths in Milwaukee County

Wisconsin lawmakers will hold a hearing Thursday on a bill to crack down on lethal opioids by tightening loopholes drug dealers use to sell fentanyl analogs.

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid, 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Used to treat chronic pain, it is also used by drug dealers to spike heroin and other opioids. As little as 2 milligrams of fentanyl is lethal to most people, and drug users, unaware of its presence, risk overdose and death.

At least 42 of the more than 100 people who have died of drug overdoses in Milwaukee County this year were exposed to fentanyl or one of its analogs.

An analog drug is a substance that’s been tweaked to mimic the effects of an original drug. These alterations are done to make the drug more potent as well as to defy detection and prosecution by producing new and uncontrolled substances.

Analogs, such as carfentanil, can be many times more lethal than fentanyl.

“Drug dealers do not care who they kill,” said Rep. Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc), a lead sponsor of the measure.

The bill seeks to aid in the prosecution of dealers and manufacturers of fentanyl analogs by more clearly defining known analogs as well as chemical modifications that are possible but have not been manufactured.

“This bill is to put teeth behind the law that goes after these evil people,” he said.

“We are trying to give police, prosecutors and treatment specialists every tool possible,” he said.

The Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the bill when it meets Thursday.